The Actors Ichikawa Yaozo II and Iwai Hanshiro IV as the Yakko Yokampei and Kuzunoha in Ashiya Doman Ouchi Kagami, Nakumura Theater

This scene comes from a play about Kuzunoha, a fox who takes human form to repay a nobleman’s kindness. The nobleman had saved her from a hunter while grieving his dead fiancée. Kuzunoha pretends to be his late fiancée’s younger sister, and they fall in love, marry, and have a son. Their happiness ends when the real sister appears, exposing Kuzunoha as a fox in disguise. She flees to the forest, where this scene takes place.

Here, her husband and son have come searching for her, begging her to return home. But Kuzunoha, through tears, explains she cannot—she now serves as a messenger for the gods and is forbidden from living among humans.